Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao on Monday urged the public as well as Opposition parties, excluding the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), to support the efforts of the State government in the recovery of government lands allegedly encroached upon by TDP leaders in the past.
“A total of 430 acres of government land in Visakhapatnam district, grabbed mostly by former elected representatives and TDP leaders during the tenure of former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, was recovered. The value of the 296 government lands recovered was estimated to be worth ₹4,776 crore,” the Minister said at a press conference here on Monday.
The Minister wondered why the Left parties, which had accused former Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao of grabbing land belonging to the Visakhapatnam Public Library when the TDP was in power, were now silent on the issue. “I urge all Opposition parties like the Jana Sena Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Lok Satta Party and the Left parties to come out with their stand on the issue,” the Minister said, adding that the defeat of the TDP in 2019 was also partly due to the “land-grabbing done by the former MLA and TDP leaders”.
“I had brought the issue to the notice of then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in my capacity as an MP and a representative of the TDP in Anakapalle. Mr. Naidu promised to take action but failed to do anything, which is why the people rejected the party in the last elections,” he said.
On the claims made by TDP leader Palla Srinivasa Rao, the Tourism Minister said that it was an open secret that land-grabbers hold their properties on ‘benami names’ or in the names of their family members. He said there was no need to issue a notice for recovery of government lands and that there was no confusion among officials over the ownership of the recovered lands.
Gajuwaka MLA Tippala Nagi Reddy, YSRCP city president Vamsi Krishna Srinivas and former MLA Malla Vijaya Prasad spoke.
